Annual Fund: It’s closer than you think

July 11, 2012

With the end of summer comes the beginning of annual fund, and the pressures that each annual fund season brings. Segmentation, personalization, participation, motivation. Email, direct mail, social media, mobile media. Increase dollars. Increase donors. Everyone needs and wants results to be bigger and better than last year’s—all achieved within a limited budget.

During these summer months, how can you prepare for annual fund season in a way that will decrease stress and improve results? We suggest an approach that has been successful for a number of our clients: create a communications plan specifically for your annual fund. First, establish a central theme from which all messages will be shaped—this will form the core of your plan. Then segment your audiences and customize messages for each segment. Specify the kinds of distribution you’ll use each month, from September through June—email, direct mail, social media, mobile media and other engagement methods.

One of the key elements of the plan is the annual fund theme. The theme acts as the motivator, the hook that grabs your audience’s attention. You’ll need time to discover what motivates your target audiences (why they give and to what areas) and what your institution’s needs are (more funds for scholarships, faculty development, curriculum updates, library technology, campus upgrades). Taken together, these two things—your institution’s needs and your audience’s interests—can be used to create a theme that will inspire action.

Once you’ve established your plan, we recommend creating a graphic that represents the core theme. Develop this graphic so that it can be easily applied to all communications, establishing a distinct, recognizable initiative. With your theme, messages, graphic look, segmentation and distribution defined for the year, you’ll be ready to take on your annual fund season. Over the course of the next nine months, your plan will enable you to create multiple, consistent, motivating appeals without the stress of inventing each appeal as a separate entity.